Reviews

The Consensus: Fight Night Round 4 Review

By and large, the majority of reviewers have agreed on the strength and weaknesses of Fight Night Round 4, from the weak minigames to the impressive new physics-based gameplay.

"The rule of thumb for Fight Night career mode is that you always increase your stats faster (and by bigger quantities) by playing the minigames instead of auto-training your boxer for half the potential stat boost. In this case, the games are so unintuitive and convoluted that you're better off auto-training to win three points (of a maximum six) than playing a minigame and only earning one. Skip them and focus on your matches..." -- Sterling McGarvey, G4TV.com

"...you'll also have the option to play a few training minigames. If you choose to auto-train, you only get 50 percent of the maximum benefit you could get by acing the training session. I did so horribly at my first few sessions that I decided to auto-train for the rest of my career. That decision never came back to haunt me.." -- Jeff Gerstmann, GiantBomb.com

"The fighting engine is now physics-based, fighters make physical contact when they box. Glancing blows no longer cause awkward clipping, but instead deflect off bodies and cause less damage. Besides looking fantastic the game also runs at a silky smooth (and far too uncommon this generation) 60 frames per second. This has the added benefit of speeding up the pace of fights." -- David Ellis, 1up.com

"Once you're in the ring it's an experience that no other game can provide and it is, in a word, fantastic. Punches fly at an alarming rate, boxers move around the ring while cascading light from flash bulbs streaks across their bodies. Punches land with thunderous sound effects and cuts and bruising are soon to follow. Everything in the ring is driven by the new physics engine and it's very nearly flawless." -- Nate Ahearn, IGN.com

The Critics Disagree

There actually weren't a lot of disagreements this time, as many of the reviews mentioned a lot of the same things. However, it was interesting to note what different reviewers took away from the game in regards to the countering system.

"Instead of working a guy's eye to close it up, or pounding him with body shots to wear down his stamina, the match can turn a bit too quickly on one solid counterpunch. So instead of employing different styles of fighting for different boxers, the only strategy that always works is sitting back and waiting for counter punch opportunities." -- Tom Price, TeamXbox.com

"The only issue that I have with counter-punching is that the AI is a bit too good at it. They occasionally react a bit too quickly to your moves and there were even instances when their missed punches wouldn't score me a counter opportunity. Maybe the game is biased toward AI opponents?" -- Nate Ahearn, IGN.com

"The game feels like it sort of slows down for a second when a counterpunch is possible, and when you land one, there's a bright flash as it hits. Considering that the timing windows for both setting up and landing a counterpunch can be sort of tight, slowing it down makes total sense from a gameplay perspective. But in a game that feels mostly focused on realism, the system feels a bit more "gamey" than you might expect." -- Jeff Gerstmann, GiantBomb.com